What are you reading in 2025?

[Cadence]

I stick with cozies as much as possible... Or Rex Stout.

I'm definitely a cozy and Stout fan too. Watched Luther, but by the end I wasn't anxious for more.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Finished Nicola Upson's "Angel with Two Faces", the second in her mystery series starring a fictionalized version of Josephine Tey. I really, really like Upson's writing, but the topic of this one ended up being one I'm not a huge fan of SPOILER REDACTED

Oh! I just read the first in the series that I found while on vacation at a thrift store "Expert in Murder". I liked the murder set up, I liked the structure where she had chapters that alternated POV. I liked the protagonists - Archie Penrose and Josephine Tey (unlike Elizabeth MacKintosh's detective Alan Grant, Penrose is interesting and charming). I'll read further in the series for sure.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Oh! I just read the first in the series that I found while on vacation at a thrift store "Expert in Murder". I liked the murder set up, I liked the structure where she had chapters that alternated POV. I liked the protagonists - Archie Penrose and Josephine Tey (unlike Elizabeth MacKintosh's detective Alan Grant, Penrose is interesting and charming). I'll read further in the series for sure.

But I didn't actually like the resolution of the murder

Spoiler: Resolution spoiler

I didn't like how Tey kind of stumbled upon the solution instead of figuring it out in advance. Felt a bit cheated.

 

[overgeeked]

I'm definitely a cozy and Stout fan too. Watched Luther, but by the end I wasn't anxious for more.

I still haven't watched Luther. We just started a Norwegian series called Wisting. It's definitely going to be right up to the line for me. Still want to watch it, but it'll be a bit between episodes or series.

I've found that a lot of the old hardboiled, pulp, noir murder mysteries feature more violence but none of the squick. I'd much rather read or watch those.

 

[Cadence]

Oh! I just read the first in the series that I found while on vacation at a thrift store "Expert in Murder". I liked the murder set up, I liked the structure where she had chapters that alternated POV. I liked the protagonists - Archie Penrose and Josephine Tey (unlike Elizabeth MacKintosh's detective Alan Grant, Penrose is interesting and charming). I'll read further in the series for sure.

Tey's "Franchise Affair" might be my all time favorite mystery and I loved "Miss Pym Disposes". They got me to try these ones by Upson. The other Grant ones demonstrated Tey could wordsmith and turn convention on its head with the best, but aren't ones I'll probably revisit.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Tey's "Franchise Affair" might be my all time favorite mystery and I loved "Miss Pym Disposes". They got me to try these ones by Upson. The other Grant ones demonstrated Tey could wordsmith and turn convention on its head with the best, but aren't ones I'll probably revisit.

I only read The Man in the Queue, which most folks acknowledge is not her best (I mean, why would an author's first in a genre be their best?!)
Maybe I'll go back for Miss Pym.

 

[Cadence]

I only read The Man in the Queue, which most folks acknowledge is not her best (I mean, why would an author's first in a genre be their best?!)
Maybe I'll go back for Miss Pym.

Miss Pym is very woman's perspective and Franchise Affair is very man's perspective. And, in spite of Franchise Affair being listed as a Grant book, it really isn't - so someone who isn't a Grant fan has nothing to fear from it.

(And Grant does flesh out some in the later ones - but he's no Archie).